Veber's focus falls on a character who appeared in his previous comedies. Francois Pignon (this time played by Gad Elmaleh) is the sort of dime-a-dozen fellow who practically begs to be overlooked. He parks cars for a living and shares a Parisian flat with a fellow valet (Dan Boon).
But Pignon hopes to marry Emile (Virginie Ledoyen), a woman he's known since childhood. When she rejects him, he falls into a funk. Pignon's drab life seems destined to remain unilluminated by love.
Not to worry: The plot waits just around the corner. It seems that Pierre Levasseur, a wealthy entrepreneur (Daniel Auteuil), is having an affair with a beautiful supermodel (Alice Taglioni). When a paparazzo catches them on the street, Pierre fears that his wealthy wife will divorce him.
If she does, there goes the business. Pierre's attorney (Richard Berry) concocts a scheme to get Francois off the hook: Why not pass that schlep in the background of the photo - of course it's Pignon - off as the model's fiance? Pignon agrees to play along for 34,450 euros, the money needed to get his hoped-for lover out of a financial mess.
Auteuil, one my favorite actors, plays broadly here, exuding a mixture of desperation, rage and duplicity. He's working entirely too hard, but it may be forgivable: He's portraying one of those guys who appear to be running even when they're standing still. The Valet sets the stage in ways that allow Veber to strut his usual stuff, and he does, though mostly in predictable fashion.
Think mediocrity, so much so that if you took away the French subtitles and had the characters speaking English, you'd have an American comedy most critics would shrug off as derivative and a trifle empty. For me, the subtitles didn't help.
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